


Breakthroughs

by MonoVox



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Depression, M/M, Mentions of Junior, Mentions of PTSD, Panic Attacks, Support Group, hints of flyoming, hints of yorkolina
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 18:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2280693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonoVox/pseuds/MonoVox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wash didn't know what he was thinking when he said he would try a support group. It certainly wasn't this though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breakthroughs

Wash looked around the church, uneasy. This wasn’t what he had pictured by the description of the group. He sighed and thought about going home and abandoning this little adventure now. He had a couple of vintage radios he could start working on to put in the shop. Doc had recommended this place though, so it couldn’t be that bad, right? His frown deepened as he looked at the steeple. Nope. Definitely not for him. He was about to turn on his heel and walk back to his deep grey car, when a voice caught him off guard. 

“Nervous Rookie?” Her hand was already in his hair and his heart stopped. Her touch was warm and memories of a desert flooded back to him as he was carried back to Iraq. His breathing hitched and her shocking red hair came into his vision. “This is far less scary, I can promise you that.” Her tone was teasing but her eyes reflected the same demons he had. 

“Carolina?” His voice sounded incredulous. “What are you doing here? I mean, I haven’t seen you since-” Since they had arrived in the airport from their last tour of duty. He let the sentence drop and she didn’t seem to mind. “You look great.” 

The shorter woman cocked an eyebrow at him, questioning his comment. He complimented her. Girls were supposed to like that. Carolina had never really made a lot of sense to him, then again Wash had never really been that great with the ladies. He scratched his freckled nose as his eyes shifted nervously to the ground.

“C’mon Wash, the groups gonna start soon, We don’t want to be late.” She turned and started walking inside the building. He kept pace behind her relatively easily. The scene was so familiar to him. Carolina had led him into battle so many times before, she was also the reason he was kept safe for so long. All thoughts he had previously about leaving was dashed as Carolina led him into a different battle.

Wash took a deep breath as he entered into a large hall that seemed to be the main area of the church. He walked down the aisle, passing by pews on either side of him. At the front was a circle of comfortable chairs. Most of them were already filled with the most rag tag group of people he had ever seen. One man had a handlebar mustache that would have looked incredibly stylish a century ago, another seemed to be a small giant with unruly strawberry blond hair, a pair was standing off of the circle whispering in hushed tones, they had bleached blond hair with purple streaks, the male had more of a dark purple while the female had more of a fuschia. The most relaxed looking person was a man dressed in blue that was holding a folder. He read over some information that was hidden in the manila folder and nodded to himself before tucking it under his chair. 

“Alright, its about time to get the support group started.” His voice was calming. He was a rather charming looking gentleman whose appearance seemed to go well with Mr. Mustache next to him. Wash could tell that the man had also been a soldier at one time and he could feel himself involuntarily relax a bit more. He was simply surrounded by like minded company. The man in blue stood and Wash took a seat across from him and felt more than watched Carolina sit to the right of him. The man in blue waited until everyone present took their seats before speaking up again. “Alright, there are a lot of familiar faces today but there are also a couple of new ones so I’m going to say the rules for the Rookies of the group.” A small smile made its way to the man's lips and Wash almost groaned out loud. Was he always going to be cursed to be the Rookie?

“Alright. PTSD has quite a few stigmas attached to it so we are going to treat this group similarly as we would an alcoholics group. Everyone goes by last names or nicknames they had. We are going to go in a circle and Introduce ourselves in a minute, in the meantime though, I’m Florida, or Flowers, either one is fine by me. I’m the organizer of this group though, and this is my partner Wyoming.” Florida gestured to Mr. Mustache to his left. “If there is ever a reason I can’t be here it’ll be Wyoming leading the group. As for the other rules, everyone here has a story, we have all been to war, this is a support group and if you don’t have something supportive to say to someone then you don’t need to speak. We are here for each other and we are here to give hope. Sometimes after war the hardest thing to do is to become a civilian.” There were a few sympathetic nods around the room.

“Great, now that we have gotten that out there. Lets go around and do introductions.” He gestured to the woman to the left of Wyoming. She was a little mousey looking with her pale skin and her mahogany colored hair. She wore an oversized sweater and looked too small to have ever been to war. Her hair was cut into a cute mohawk and she looked nervous as all the attention fell to her. 

“Oh um, You can all call me CT. I served in the Army.” Her voice was a lot stronger than Wash had expected and she seemed adorable but she also seemed very sad. 

The man next to her picked up. “I’m North. I served in the Air Force with my sister.” He nodded his head in the direction of the girl with the matching blond hair next to him.

“Names South.” She grumbled out, her arms were crossed and she slouched in her chair. Wash had a hard time believing if she had actually been in the military with her posture. 

The man next to her had an eletrolarnyx, one of those things that former smokers use to talk, that he used to speak with. It sounded odd and was difficult to make out what the man was saying but Wash managed. “I’m Maine.” He took a moment to breath, “I served in the Navy with the SEALs.”

The introductions when on, the small giant was apparently a man named Caboose, there was a round guy named Grif with a red head sitting pretty close to him who was Simmons. There was an older man called Sarge, and another blond with a nasty eye scar named York. Wash saw though that York kept glancing at Carolina with his one good eye. It was Wash’s turn to speak when the door banged open at the end of the hall. A tall muscular man jogged up to the group and grabbed the empty chair to the left of Wash and beamed at the group. “Sorry I’m late, had to fend off the nuns around the corner.” He wiggled his eyebrows at no one in particular but there seemed to be a collective groan from the group and South glared at the newcomer as if she could melt his face if she focused hard enough. 

“Names Tucker, and don’t you forget it. After all, I’m sure one of you will be saying it tonight.” He chuckled to himself, before catching Wash staring at him and winked. As sighs and mumbles of disappointment filled the room Tucker’s attention was drawn to the others. “Alright, tough crowd tonight.” He frowned and leaned back in his seat. Florida took the moment to speak up.

“Tucker, this is a group founded on honesty. The lies stop at the door, so why are you really late?” Florida’s blue eyes caught the green of Tucker’s and the answer spilled out as dark skin stretched over tensed muscles. Wash didn’t know how long Tucker had been out of the military but it was either recently or the man still worked out.

“I couldn’t find a babysitter Florida. Sorry.” Tucker’s voice seemed a lot more hollow this time. Tucker played with a water bottle that he held in his hand, twisting and untwisting the cap nervously. Tucker dragged his eyes away from Florida and shook his head, seeming to shake off the wet blanket that the leader had put on Tuckers mood. “I served in the Navy.” 

Wash didn’t realized Tucker was finished until the silence around them had become a little awkward and He realized he was supposed to go next. “Oh uh...I-I’m Washington. Or just Wash is fine. I was in the Navy.” He glanced at Florida and was relieved to get a nod of approval. Carolina finished up the introductions before they entered the real sharing part of it. Wash sat and listened patiently. He wasn’t in the sharing mood, let alone the sharing type. It didn’t help that Carolina and Tucker both seemed antsy on either side of him. Some of the stories being relayed seemed all too familiar. Maybe three people had the chance to really talk about how good they had been doing recently. Wyoming had expressed the breakthrough that he had finally been able to feel comfortable to leave his home without a firearm. This had earned him a round of applause. Applause was also given to Caboose, because he had been able to move on and adopt another dog. 

Caboose had apparently been part of a K-9 bomb sniffing unit. His partner, Sheila had been shot in the line of duty. Ever since then Caboose had been lonely and wanting to adopt but he was nervous that he would forget about Sheila. His counselor had apparently gotten him into contact with a rescue that rehomed four legged warriors and Caboose had really hit it off with another dog named Freckles. Freckles apparently had a lot of aggression issues with everyone else the shelter had tried to pair him with but with Caboose he just acted like a big puppy. It was a no brainer for both parties and thus, Caboose had a breakthrough. As the story concluded Florida stood and said that they had an excellent session and that he hoped to see everyone the following week. Everyone got up, a few stretched as they stood and Wash felt a slap on his back as Carolina stood.

“Well Rookie, you coming back?” Wash wanted to say no. He didn’t want to share, didn’t really feel like he had a reason too. His feelings were his own. He liked hearing the stories though. He didn’t talk about it but it had been a long time since he had felt this normal and this welcome to a social event. 

Slowly he nodded. “Yeah, I think I will.” He dug his hands in his pockets and smiled a little. “How long have you been coming?”

“About 3 months.” Her answer made him frown. “Still haven’t shared though. What we went through Wash, it was different...it was-” He held up a hand. 

“I know.” They left it at that. They met each others eyes, both remembering the blinding light that had decimated their camp. There was nothing left to say about what had happened. “I’ll see you next week.” She nodded and Wash turned, he could feel her eyes on him as he walked out of the sanctuary and to the parking lot. Tucker was on the phone yelling at someone on the other end. 

“I know that the keys are supposed to come out of the car. Do you really think that I left them in there on purpose?” He looked tired. His features were contorted in anger as he pressed his face against the window of a pretty aqua (or was it turquiose?) colored car. 

“Look, can you just bring me the spare key you have?” A pause, “Are you kidding? I need to go pick up junior, just bring me the fucking keys.” Another pause. Then Tucker hung up the phone and stared at it as if trying to figure out who to call next, apparently he wasn’t getting a spare from his first contact. 

“Uh, Hey, I have a coat hanger in my car if you want to use it.” Wash spoke up, Tucker turned quickly to look at him. As he processed what Wash had said he looked at him with confusion. 

“Cool, so I’ll call if I have some dry cleaning?” Tucker wasn’t catching on but Wash had a feeling that it was because Tucker’s mind was made hazy by frustration and anger. Wash shook his head and retrieved the hanger without any further explanation. 

Within a few minutes Wash had managed to unlock Tucker’s car for him and grabbed his keys. “Here you go.” 

“Oh my fucking god man. That was awesome.” A grin spread across his face. “You totally saved my ass. I’m not totally fucked now.” He shook Wash’s hand. “I totally owe you one. I’m Lavernius Tucker man.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be anonymous or something?” Wash wasn’t sure what the rules were about the outside but Tucker waved him off.

“Nah. Its no biggie, just in there its anonymous. Plus we are all so close that it probably doesn’t matter. We all really know each other but we watch out for the new people. You’re pretty cool though. You coming next week?”  
Wash nodded as he played with the hanger, attempting to bend the wire back into a proper shape, “Probably.”

“Great, we’ll grab dinner afterward, then. My treat. You know, as a thank you.” Tucker got into his car before Wash could dismiss it. Tucker rolled down his window though. “Or as a date, we could see how many freckles are visible versus how many hide under those clothes.” Wash felt his ears get hot. Was Tucker flirting with him?

Tucker laughed before waving and driving off leaving a stumped Wash trying to figure out what exactly had just happened.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was a little thing that I intended to be one chapter, but it won't. I hope you enjoy though.


End file.
